The Grannies

Match Report

The covers at Kings came off (for the third time of asking) on a dark and damp May afternoon some two hours after the planned start. The game against the Grannies was thus reduced to a 25 over thrash, albeit one that finished in almost total darkness, with players lit up by the electronic scoreboard, and batsmen wondering if the bowler had arrived at crease some 22 yards distant. The Stragglers had elected to bat a few hours before the start, and set off almost in full IPL mode, albeit with the damp outfield holding up anything not completely muddled. Jonathan Neame (14) hit one opening bowler back over his head with his new bat before being undone by the young (young enough to be a school friend of his daughter!) quick at the other end. Ruaraidh MacLeod (34) joined Will Attwood (40), and sustained good momentum at 9 an over for the first half of the innings, but, with both falling in quick succession to the change bowling, the run rate slowed through the middle overs, and a good enough target seemed unlikely. Tom Wood and James Boyd Moss (both 13) came and went trying to up the rate, leaving Jack Taylor (33) and Hamish MacLeod (18*) to finish with a flourish at 178 for 6.

Straggler catching in 2016 has not continued in the same exceptional vein of last season, and, even with the gloom as a useful excuse, too many chances went to ground. However, the bowling of Ed Prest, Sam Attwood (until groin injury) and Hamish MacLeod was too much for the Grannies. Behind the rate from the outset, there was little respite, and, although only one wicket fell to a MacLeod combination, the Grannies still needed 46 from the final over.